• Direct. Last minute about the coronavirus crisis
  • Policy. The PP takes for granted a pact with the Government on health and the EU
  • Policy.The PP moves away from supporting the Budgets and sees pacts in tourism and industry
  • Economy.Nadia Calviño and Elvira Rodríguez begin the rapprochement between the Government and the PP

Once the state of alarm decreed by the coronavirus crisis has ended and in anticipation of a deep crisis, the PP has partially changed its position. Now it is further enhancing its approach to the PSOE in search of pacts.

The thaw has started in the health field, but there have also been notable advances in relation to the EU, where it is expected that an agreement will be reached in Congress this Wednesday. And although the distances are still very wide, there is more space to reach specific agreements in economics.

So, just as the socialist wing of the government has begun to do, the popular ones are recalibrating their proposals. Why? Because it is not the same to ask for a drastic drop in all taxes when the economy grows above 2% than when it falls 5.2% quarter-on-quarter and may plummet above 15% in the year, according to the Bank of Spain. .

In this situation, and in a context marked by attempts to reach broad pacts with the Executive, neither the document of economic conclusions nor the amendments of the PP in the commission for the reconstruction of Congress include the large tax cuts of "all taxes "advocated by Pablo Casado just before the coronavirus hit, when favorable winds were still blowing for the economy. Now there is no mention of the decrease in the maximum marginal rate of personal income tax below 40%, nor is the Corporate Tax at percentages below 20%.

The 'popular' economic proposal

"We are not at the procedural moment of making structural reductions in large taxes," sources from the national leadership of the main opposition party tell this newspaper. "When the fiscal mismatch is going to be so great, you cannot lower all taxes, because public accounts are not sustained."

Instead, the popular bet on selective discounts: tourism, the agri-food sector or access to housing. And match the "structural" tax cuts to the "business cycle", which right now "does not know what it will be". That is, without abandoning the main lines of the Casado program, but being aware of the economic downturn produced by the pandemic.

The proposal that the PP has brought to the commission for reconstruction is very much in line with the postulates of the ex-minister and current deputy secretary of the party, Elvira Rodríguez , who is the one who has prepared the document with the approval of Genoa.

The theory of the also former president of the CNMV is that "only by giving rise to sustainable growth are the tax bases broadened to generate the necessary revenue", and therefore it is "essential to provide legal certainty to the tax system."

Competitiveness and labor reform

Rodríguez has begun a rapprochement with Vice President Nadia Calviño, whom the PP supports as a candidate to chair the Eurogroup. However, PP parliamentary sources warn that there is no scope for a global pact with the PSOE in the economy, nor to support the 2021 Budgets, since they are committed to "fiscal orthodoxy". In other words, by prioritizing deficit reduction.

Instead of placing itself in maximum positions, the PP has advocated improving the base proposal - that of the PSOE -, asking it not to raise the tax burden with tax increases, but rather by encouraging competitiveness with a new twist to the labor reform, in the opposite direction of what the Government yearns for. "The tax system cannot be an impediment to growth, in any way," they point out.

The PP does demand "specific" tax breaks. The most pressing is tourism . Thus, in their amendment to resolution 124 of the PSOE, the popular ones advocate the super reduced VAT to 4% for two years, a drop in airport taxes of 25% and fiscal incentives "to reactivate consumption in Spain in tourist activities".

In the heat of the conversations on the conclusions of the commission for reconstruction, the Government for its part makes a clear call to the PP to join the negotiation of new Budgets.

The accounts, in October

The government spokeswoman and finance minister, María Jesús Montero, invited him on Tuesday to extend the agreement on health issues, which are brewing in Congress, to economic issues. And then, this consensus is carried over to next year's accounts.

The Executive is waiting for the next European Council on July 17 and 18 to finalize aid to Spain from the EU reconstruction fund and to confirm the drop in GDP to initiate contacts with parliamentary groups.

The forecast is to do it throughout July and August and present the Budgets in the House in October, "in time and form." The Government has no intention of waiting for ERC, who would be well advised to discuss it after the Catalan elections, to make it easier for it to support them.

In order not to break all ties with the independentistas, they maintain their commitment to meet the negotiating table with separatism in July. And to do so, despite the rejection it causes in Citizens. The orange formation , together with the PNV and smaller groups, can save Sánchez the approval of the Budgets. But Moncloa does not lose sight of either the PP or the ERC. Just in case.

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Know more

  • PP
  • PSOE
  • ERC
  • Spain
  • Maria Jesus Montero
  • Nadia Calviño
  • GDP
  • Pablo Casado
  • Personal income tax

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